The invention relates in general to ammunition and in particular to a new and useful hollow charge, or plate charge, lining, or a projectile charge coating and to a method of making it.
Such explosive charges provided with a mostly conical cavity having a cone angle of selected ranges and located substantially at the projectile side directly facing the target, as known in a variety of designs.
For example, German No. OS 29 13 103 discloses a flat cone charge with a cavity which is aligned with a metal insert made of an alloy having such a high tantalum content that a density is obtained exceeding that of copper. Tungsten and various other alloy metals also are provided for that alloy. Experience has shown, however, that due to the considerably different properties of the employed metals, these prior art copper alloys exhibit a relatively insufficiently homegeneous density and structure, reducing the piercing capacity of the explosive charge.
It is known that the surface texture of a hollow or plate charge lining considerably influences the cutting power or cutting depth, so that surface roughness, variation in thickness, oxide films, etc. are undesirable. As a remedy and to obtain a material easy to work for the mentioned purposes, German Pat. No. 27 24 036 shows the manufacture of an insert in a pressing process, of a copper bismuth alloy. However, the same applies to this method as above, namely that no satisfactory homogeneity is obtained.